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GEN
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01820 7065
Thirty-Fifth Annual Report
OF THE
GENEALOGY 974.202 M312SC 1881
SCHOOL COMMITTEE
OF THE
CITY OF MANCHESTER,
TOGETHER WITH THE
TWENTY-SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT
OF THE
SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION,
FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING
DECEMBER 31, 1881.
INC
RE
MANCHESTER, N. H .: JOHN B. CLARKE, PRINTER. 1882.
THIRTY-FIFTH ANNUAL REPORT
OF THE
SCHOOL COMMITTEE
OF THE
CITY OF MANCHESTER,
TOGETHER WITH THE
TWENTY-SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT
OF THE
SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION,
FOR THE YEAR ENDING DECEMBER 31, 1881.
MANCHESTER, N. H .: JOHN B. CLARKE, PRINTER. 1882.
SCHOOL DEPARTMENT.
ORGANIZATION FOR 1881.
SCHOOL COMMITTEE.
HORACE B. PUTNAM, Mayor, ex-officio Chairman.
WILLIAM J. HOYT,
President of the Common Council, ex officio.
Ward 1 .- Charles F. Everett, 54 Stark corporation. Frank T. E. Richardson, 49 M. S. B. Ward 2 .- Benjamin C. Dean, Myrtle street, cor. Ash. Gerherdus L. Demarest, 54 Blodget street. Ward 3 .- Daniel Clark, Lowell street, cor. Pine. William A. Webster, 581 Union street. Ward 4,- Walter M. Parker, Hanover, cor. Chestnut. John T. Fanning, 360 Manchester street. Ward 5 .- Denis F. O'Connor, 173 Central street. Charles A. O'Connor, Chandler House. Ward 6 .- Abial C. Flanders, 308 Park street. Brackett B. Weeks, 382 Central street. Ward 7 .- Marshall P. Hall, 54 Amoskeag corporation. Ezra Huntington, 13 M. P. W. corporation. Ward 8 .- Louis E. Phelps, 220 Granite street (P.). Douglas Mitchell, 220 Granite street (P.).
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CLERK OF SCHOOL COMMITTEE. MARSHALL P. HALL.
SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION.
WILLIAM E. BUCK. .
STANDING COMMITTEES.
Finance, Accounts, and Claims .- The Mayor, Messrs. Huntington, Hoyt, Fanning, Hall, Parker, Mitchell.
Salaries .- Messrs. Phelps, Clark, Webster, Weeks, Huntington.
Repairs, Furniture, and Supplies .- Messrs. Flanders, Dean, Fanning, D. F. O'Connor, Parker.
Fuel and Heating .- Messrs. Huntington, the Mayor, Fanning, Flanders, Phelps, Clark, Hoyt.
Examination of Teachers .- Messrs. Webster, Clark, Par- ker, Dean, C. A. O'Connor.
Text-Books and Apparatus .- Messrs. Dean, C. A. O'Con- nor, Weeks, Demarest, Clark.
Employment of Children and Truancy .- Messrs. Mitch- ell, Webster, Everett, Richardson, Demarest.
Music .- Messrs. Richardson, D. F. O'Connor, Weeks, Flanders, Mitchell.
Drawing .- Messrs. Hall, Mitchell, Demarest, Phelps, Fanning.
Non-Resident Pupils .- Messrs. Weeks, Everett, Flan- ders, D. F. O'Connor, Richardson.
Course of Study .- Messrs. Demarest, Hall, Webster, C. A. O'Connor, Parker. -
Sanitary .- Messrs. Webster, Clark, Dean, Demarest, Fanning.
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SUB-COMMITTEES.
High School .- Messrs. Clark, Dean, Parker, C. A. O'Connor, Hall, Webster, Demarest ..
Ash Street .- Messrs. Dean, Webster, Demarest, Phelps, C. A. O'Connor.
Lincoln Street .- Messrs. Demarest, Flanders, Weeks, Fanning, Clark.
Spring Street .- Messrs. Everett, Parker, Flanders, Huntington, Demarest.
Franklin Street .- Messrs. Huntington, Hall, Phelps, Clark, Richardson.
Lowell Street .- Messrs. Webster, C. A. O'Connor, Mitchell, Everett, Fanning.
Manchester Street .- Messrs. C. A. O'Connor, Weeks, Dean, D. F. O'Connor, Everett.
Wilson Hill and Bridge Street .- Messrs. Parker, Fan- ning, Weeks, Phelps, Flanders.
Training School .- Messrs. Hall, Clark, Dean, Hunting- ton, D. F. O'Connor.
Beech Street .- Messrs. Webster, D. F. O'Connor, Rich- ardson, Hall, Mitchell.
Piscataquog Grammar .- Messrs. Phelps, Mitchell, D. F. O'Connor, Weeks, Huntington.
Center Street and South Main Street .- Messrs. Mitch- ell, Phelps, Demarest, Flanders, Fanning.
Amoskeag, Blodget Street, and Stark District .- Messrs. Richardson, Everett, Parker, Mitchell, Dean.
Bakersville and Hallsville .- Messrs. Flanders, Hall, Webster, C. A. O'Connor, Phelps.
Goffe's Falls and Harvey District. - Messrs. Weeks, Clark, D. F. O'Connor, Fanning, Richardson.
Mosquito Pond, Webster's Mills, and Youngsville .- Messrs. Fanning, Richardson, Everett, Parker, Webster.
Evening Schools .- Messrs. D. F. O'Connor, Huntington, Flanders, Demarest, Hall.
IN BOARD OF SCHOOL COMMITTEE, January 6, 1882.
The Superintendent read his annual report to the School Committee. Voted, That the report be accepted.
The Clerk read the annual report which he had prepared at the re- quest of the Board.
Voted, That the report be accepted, and adopted as the report of the Board, and that it be transmitted to the City Councils, together with the report of the Superintendent.
Attest : M. P. HALL, Clerk.
REPORT
OF THE
SCHOOL COMMITTEE.
To the City Councils, -
GENTLEMEN : - The School Committee present their an- nual report for the year 1881.
The public schools have been in session one hundred and eighty-five days, or thirty-seven weeks of five days each. The number of schools at the beginning of the year was seventy-two ; at the close of the year, seventy,- one pri- mary school on Spruce street, and another on Manchester street, having been closed at the beginning of the fall term, on account of the withdrawal of pupils to be placed in the French parochial schools. The number of teachers em- ployed at the beginning of the year was seventy-six ; at the close of the year, seventy-four. Six teachers have re- signed their places ; namely, Mrs. Mason, and Misses Greene, Campbell, Stone, Chase, and Hubbard. They were all successful teachers and long in service, four of them having taught more than ten years each, in this city. The following-named new teachers have been appointed : Misses Webster, Gilford, Patten, James, and Gee. All of these except Miss Webster are graduates of the Training School.
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The whole number of scholars enrolled in the day schools was 4,235. The average number belonging was 2,858. The average daily attendance was 2,602. The average per- centage of attendance, 91. The whole number enrolled was only 99 more than in 1880. The average number belong- ing was 112 less, and the average attendance was 125 less. The falling off took place in the last term of the year, and was occasioned almost wholly by the closing of the schools before mentioned. At the close of the year the whole num- ber belonging to the schools had probably been restored, more scholars having been placed in schools through the efforts of the truant officer than were withdrawn at the beginning of the fall term. There are four hundred or more children in the French schools; so that the total number in all the schools of the city, public and private, has probably been increased three hundred during the past year.
The usual promotions have been made from grade to grade. The number of pupils who completed the gram- mar-school course was sixty-two; number of these who passed into the High School, fifty-four; whole number ad- mitted to the High, sixty-one ; number of graduates from High School, thirty-nine. The largest average attendance in one room was forty-six, at Goffe's Falls ; the smallest, five, in the Stark District. The average attendance at Web- ster's Mills was twelve, and at Mosquito Pond, fourteen. The Board would recommend that the two schools last. named be consolidated ; and the school at Stark District ought not to be continued longer with the present number of scholars.
A table giving the particulars of attendance in the sev- eral schools will be found at the end of this report.
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EVENING SCHOOLS
have been in session about the same number of months as usual. The attendance has been irregular, particularly at the Spring-street house, and rather unsatisfactory in its re- sults. A large number of youth find their way into these schools who make no profitable use of their time. It has been suggested that a new plan be adopted which has been found successful in the city of Worcester. A small deposit of money is required as a guarantee of the faithful attend- ance and deportment of the pupil, to be returned at the end of the term.
The demand for more school room at the north end of the city is increasing. Plans for the erection of a
NEW SCHOOL-HOUSE ON WEBSTER STREET ยท
were adopted in the month of September, and the founda- tion of a building has been put in. The amount already expended, including the cost of the lot, is about four thous- and seven hundred dollars. The following description of the proposed new building is furnished by Mr. Fanning the architect :-
" The complete plan of this school-building is arranged for eight school-rooms, to contain forty-eight desks in each room. The central section is forty-nine by fifty-eight feet on the ground, and contains four school-rooms, two on the first and two on the second floor, and four hat and cloak rooms, and teachers' closets. On each side of the main building is a wing, thirty-six by forty-four feet in plan, two stories high, and containing a school-room on each floor, and the stairways. A basement extends under the entire building. It is proposed to build only the central section of the building and one set of stairways at present, but
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arrange for the addition of the wings when they shall be required. The rooms in the central section of the build- ing will be separated by a partition containing- slides, so that they may be used together for general exercises, and these rooms have also more than the usual length to adapt them for assembly purposes, avoiding the necessity of an additional story for an assembly hall in the building. The clothes-rooms are placed on the same floors as the school- rooms, so as to avoid the use of stairs as far as possible. The arrangements for light, ventilation, and heating have been carefully studied, and it is believed that all the rooms will be convenient and cheerful. There will be two fronts to the building, facing Chestnut and Pine streets respec- tively. The facades, although plain, will be quite pleasing and imposing when the building is complete, with the addi- tion of the wings." ,
The Board have recommended the selling of the house and lot at Bakersville, on account of the undesirable loca- tion, and the building of a new house on a larger and more eligible lot. They have also recommended the purchase of additional land adjoining the north Main-street lot in 'Squog. The increase of population on the west side of the river is greater than in . any other section of the city. The Superintendent reports that more school room will be urgently needed there at the opening of the spring term. There has been no enlargement of school accommodations in that section of the city for many years. The Board hope to see both of these plans accomplished.
VARIOUS REPAIRS
have been made upon the school-buildings, costing in the aggregate $4,959.72. Of this amount, $1,600 was spent for the extensive repairs upon the Lowell-street building, known as the old High-School house. The house has been
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greatly improved. The crooked flights of stairs at the ends of the building were removed, and a broad hall and staircase placed in the center of the building, allowing the four school-rooms to receive light on three sides, and im- proving their ventilation. This building originally cost only $2,700. After adding the cost of remodeling, it is still the least expensive, as well as the oldest, school-house in the city.
Valuable improvements have been made in the High- School building. The former unsightly privies have been replaced by water-closets with modern arrangements. The plumbing and carpentry cost $974.57. New floors of Georgia pine have been laid in the Training-School build- ing, and other repairs made, costing $254. At Lincoln- street, alterations in the steam-heating apparatus, and repairs of the fence, cost $126; at Franklin-street, repairs of stairs and changes in boiler, $215.74 ; at Spring-street, gas-piping for evening schools, and repairs of water-closet, $105.45. New fences at Manchester-street, $142.75 ; Spruce-street, #205; Blodget-street, $85.90; north Main street, $147. At South-Main-street, concrete walks, and repairs upon steps and shed, $159.86 ; at Center-street, drain-pipes and painting, inside and out, $250; Amoskeag, new fence, and introduction of city water, $186.60; and minor repairs, costing less than $100 each, on the following- named buildings : Ash-street, Goffe's Falls, Harvey Dis- trict, Hallsville, Mosquito Pond, Stark District, Webster's Mills, and Wilson Hill. The committee on repairs have estimated that $5,000 ought to be spent upon the buildings the coming year, to keep them in proper repair, and to make some needed changes. The roof of the High-School building needs extensive repairs. The basement of the Spring-street house should be excavated, in order that the steam-heating apparatus may be safely managed. The
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outer wood-work upon several of the buildings is decaying, and needs paint to protect it from the weather.
The committee have recommended that the lecture hall at the High School be fitted with seats and desks, and used as a study-room. Recitations can then be carried on in the different rooms in the building, without interrupting study. Aside from the advantages of the change in the work of the school, the new sittings will conduce to the comfort and health of the pupils. The old seats are uncomfortably small and low for the use of the older pupils of the school.
COST OF THE SCHOOLS.
The expenditures of the School Committee for the year have been as follows : -
For instruction
: $37,503 40
incidental expenses 13,225.22
$50,728 62
We close the year with an unexpended balance of $2,739.75. A detailed statement of expenditures will be found appended to this report.
The expenses have been $1,734.03 more than last year. Of this amount, $87 1.80 was for teaching, and $859.23 for incidentals. Additional teachers have been employed, and the cost for janitors' services and fuel has correspondingly increased.
The schools have been supplied with tables, blocks, and models, for object teaching and drawing, and a large amount of supplementary reading. These are permanent supplies, and their cost ought not to be reckoned in the running expenses of the schools, although it has largely increased the incidental expenses of the year.
The average cost per scholar, based upon the whole num- ber enrolled, is $11.98, against $11.84 in 1880. It is
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customary to base the cost per scholar upon the average number belonging to the schools. The large falling off in attendance in the last half of the year reduced the ratio of average number belonging to whole number enrolled much below that of last year, and the average cost upon this basis is therefore increased, being $13.12 for teaching, and $4.63 for incidentals, a total of $17.75 per scholar, against $16.49 for 1880. Several schools in the city proper and in the suburban districts have been very small. So long as we are obliged to support such schools as those at Mosquito Pond, Webster's Mills, and Stark District, paying full salaries for the instruction of from five to twelve scholars, the average cost will necessarily be high.
The total cost of public instruction in this city for the last year, including salaries of superintendent. committee, and truant officer, was $54,125.12. The city has received its share of the state literary fund, amounting to $1,870.50, and in tuition fees from non-resident pupils, $296.80. De- ducting this from the total expenses, we have $51,957.82, as the net amount paid by the city for the support of the schools. This is two and eight-tenths mills upon each dol- lar of the assessed valuation. The average cost in one hundred and fifty-six cities and towns in the United States having seven thousand five hundred inhabitants and up- wards, as shown by the last report of the Commissioner of Education at Washington, is six and four-tenths mills.
It has repeatedly been shown that the public-school ex- penses of Manchester are low, and have not increased with the growth of our population and the increase in cost of other departments of the city. Our teachers' salaries are lower, and our incidental expenses are less, than in most towns of the same population. The tax-payer who is dis- posed to charge the schools with extravagance should be reminded of these facts. It should be remembered, also, to
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what extent the public-school tax is reduced on account of the large number of scholars in private schools. If all the children of the city were instructed at the public expense, as they have an undoubted right to be, the city would be obliged to hire fifty new teachers, build twelve new school- houses of four rooms each, at an expense of at least one hundred thousand dollars, and pay an increase of twenty- five thousand dollars in the annual running expenses of the schools.
The board have contemplated certain measures for the new year which might increase the expenses of the schools to the extent of one thousand dollars to fifteen hundred dollars. A new teacher is imperatively needed in the High School. Since the cutting off of an hour's time each day, it is impossible for the present corps of teachers to give thorough instruction in the time permitted for recitations. Even before the reduction in time, a great defect in the High School was lack of thoroughness, arising from the same cause.
The increase of appropriation for 1882, asked for by the committee to cover the increase of salaries and the pay of new teachers, is no more than the balance now on hand. The committee believe the recommendations they have made for the coming year to be necessary for the efficiency of the schools. They know the people desire the schools to be kept at the highest standard of usefulness, and will favor liberal appropriations for that purpose. At the annual election of teachers, the board voted a slight
INCREASE IN THE SALARIES
of all teachers except the following: the sub-master and first assistant at the High School, first assistants in gram- mar schools, the teacher at Goffe's Falls, and the special teachers in music and drawing.
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This increase restores the salaries to about the same rates as paid before the reduction in 1877. They were cut down then because times were hard and the cost of living low. A reversal of these conditions is a valid reason for . the increase. There are always men in' the community who begrudge the teacher his wages. The school-grum- bler, like the school-master, is always "abroad." He figures how much teachers get per hour and minute, until the habit ' becomes chronic. But with all his figuring he has never explained how good teachers can be hired in his own town for less wages than other towns are willing to pay ; nor has he ever shown why teachers, whom he acknowledges ought to be as well prepared for their work as the lawyer or physi- cian for theirs, must grow in usefulness and strive to excel, and yet not expect the reward given to success in other callings. Wisdom never grows old ; and the quaint words written upon this subject by Roger Ascham, three hun- dred years ago, though often used in illustration, will bear repeating here. He said: -
"It is a pity, that commonly more care is had, yea, and that among very wise men, to find out rather a cunning man for their horse than a cunning man for their chil- dren. They say nay in word, but they do so in deed : for to one they will gladly give a stipend of two hundred crowns by the year, and loth to offer the other two hundred shillings. God that sitteth in Heaven, laugheth their choice to scorn, and rewardeth their liberality as it should : for he suffereth them to have tame and well ordered horses, but wild and unfortunate children, and, therefore, in the end they find more pleasure in their horse than comfort in their children'.".
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In the year just ended, several educational
MEASURES OF GENERAL INTEREST
were adopted, both in the State and city. Perhaps the most important of these was the amendment to the state law, regulating the employment of children, which went into effect January 1, 1882. All children of school age are now placed in four classes : First, those under ten years of age, who cannot be employed at all in any manufactur- ing establishment ; second, those between ten and twelve, who may work in vacations only, and must attend school the whole time it is kept in the town where they live ; third, those between twelve and fourteen, who may work six months, and must attend school six months ; fourth, those between fourteen and sixteen, who may work nine months, and must attend school three months. In addi- tion, every child under sixteen must now be able to read and write before obtaining employment, except in vaca- tions. This intelligence test is a new feature in educational laws, New Hampshire being the second State in the Union to adopt it. The plain intent of the amendment is to apply some test of the practical value of the three months' or six months' schooling required by the other provisions of the law. In its spirit the law is no less wise than bold and progressive. If it were enforced, illiteracy would be ex- tinguished in our manufacturing towns. It has serious defects, however. It fails to say that the reading and writ- ing shall be in the English language.
Our French fellow-citizens insist that such an interpretation will work hardship to them by denying employment to their children who cannot speak English, although proficient in their own tongue. While the Board has interpreted the law to mean the English language, it is not supposed that it intends to deny employment to children who have had
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no opportunity to learn the language. It would be absurd to apply the test unless the child had attended a reasonable time in some school where English was taught. Children who are so near the age of sixteen as to leave no time for learning English ought to be exempted. The French children are very quick, and in the public schools have usually learned to read and write English in a few months' time. Unless English was intended, the enactment of the law was unnecessary, because all children would learn to read and write that language if permitted to do so. And here arises another and more important consideration. The French people have established schools of their own. Naturally they wish to teach the French language. If the test of intelligence is to be in English, these schools will not answer the demand of the law. Is not this the real point at issue ? Will it not have to be determined whether a school teaching French or any other foreign language exclusively, is a " private or public school " in the meaning of the law ?
The statute requires attendance " in a school where in- struction is given by a teacher competent to instruct in the branches taught in common schools." It would be a palpa- ble violation of the spirit, if not the letter, of our school laws, to teach a foreign language exclusively in a public school ; and when a system of private schools assumes the functions of the public schools, the same rule ought to ap- ply. This Board gives one broad interpretation to this and to all our school laws, namely : that their object is to place the children of all nationalities upon the same footing ; to break down all barriers between them ; to help them to un- derstand each other and the institutions and laws under which they live. In securing this great end there need be no misunderstandings. The subjeet has been referred to a special committee of this Board, who doubtless will report
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a plan by which the law may be enforced without hardship, and still accomplish the desired good.
It would be better if the laws were so amended that all children between the ages of twelve and sixteen were re- garded as one class and allowed to work half the time, and then, on attaining the age of sixteen, be required to pass the test of reading and writing.
The school reports of previous years have devoted much space to the matter of
TRUANCY.
At the beginning of the year the subject still forced itself upon the attention of the Board. The number of scholars growing up without schooling was rapidly increasing, and the task of enforcing attendance becoming more difficult. Twenty years ago, our people, with rare exceptions, gladly sent their children to school, and compulsory laws were unknown and unnecessary. Occasionally a scholar played truant. When the efforts of teacher and parents failed to keep him in school, he became a truant under the law, and as a last resort was arrested for the offense. Truancy of this kind was a criminal matter, and its management be- longed to the police department. With the changes in our population, the matter has put on an aspect entirely new. Truancy per se has not increased, absenteeism has. Hun- dreds of parents among us are entirely indifferent to the education of their children. The child who is out of school because his parents do not or will not send him, is not a criminal. If he becomes a vagrant, or is kept at work without schooling, the parent or employer is the offender, and is amenable to the law. It is better to go after the child kindly than to coerce ; better to persuade than to fine the parent. The right dealing with absenteeism has become a purely educational question. For this reason the
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